Comic-Con: CW's Beauty and the Beast Stays True to Original by Playing Up Forbidden Romance

The CW'sBeauty and the Beastmay not have singing teacups and dancing candelabras, but it is still a story of forbidden romance.

This B&B is actually based on the 1987 CBS series, with a similar procedural twist. Instead of Ron Perlman as the beast and Linda Hamilton as the beauty, now there's Jay Ryan and Smallvillealum Kristin Kreuk as Vincent Keller and Catherine Chandler, respectively. The titular duo's journey to romance is at the heart of the new series.

"All the romance is still there," executive producer Sherri Cooper told the packed ballroom at Comic-Con on Thursday. "It's a procedural with this beautiful forbidden romance that it's all built around. But at its heart... it's the universal Beauty and the Beast story; it's forbidden love."

Where other TV series play up the will-they-or-won't-they romantic elements, the producers assured fans that it's not whether Catherine and Vincent will get together, but when and how many times — to great applause from the audience.

"What's great about Kristin and Jay is that when you see them on screen there's just chemistry," executive producer Kelly Souders (also formerly of Smallville) said. "Obviously, the attraction and the pull are there, but there's a lot of story and a lot of elements that are going to make it a little bit of a struggle for them to get together often, but we're going to try."

Ultimately, their backstories may be the biggest roadblock. Vincent was turned into a beast after a faulty military experiment on which Catherine's mother may have worked — and which may account for her death in the pilot.

"The two of them really are ultimately partners," Kreuk said of their journey. "They're going to work to help each other, and I think they're going to come up against ... incredible struggles that are going to keep them from actually being with each other. They both don't trust people. It's going to be really hard for them to do that."

Beauty and the Beast premieres Thursday, Oct. 11 at 9/8c on The CW. Will you be watching?